The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
by Gavin Bonshor on April 30, 2020 10:00 AM ESTASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR
One of the most fascinating Z490 models is the ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR, which is also the first Z490 motherboard to feature the ATX12VO standard. This removes the clunkier ATX12V power connector and opts for a smaller ATX12VO connector which supplies just 12 V into the motherboard, with a lot of 5 V and 3.3 V standards which are rarely used nowadays. On top of this, the Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR includes a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, four SATA ports, and two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, with an Intel Gigabit Ethernet port too.
The ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR is basic in design, with silver heatsinks on a black PCB, and is advertised as featuring a 10-phase power delivery. The lower portion of the board includes two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which run at x16/+4, with three PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, and has a solitary PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot. There are also four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays, with four memory slots with support for up to 128 GB of DDR4-4000. Providing power to the board is an ATX12VO set of connectors including a 10-pin, 8-pin, and 6-pin power input trio, with a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU input providing power to the processor.
On the rear panel is a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Powering the three 3.5 mm audio connectors is a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec, while a single HDMI video output and PS/2 combo port add additional connectivity. The ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR also features a Wi-Fi 5 wireless interface with support for BT 4.2 devices.
Pricing on the ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming isn't currently known, but it's not likely to be expensive. It also marks the introduction of ATX12VO onto a mainstream socket. Current availability isn't known at this time, but it could be a case of waiting for power supply vendors to respond with consumer options.
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plonk420 - Sunday, May 3, 2020 - link
noice! thanks for the VRM information! amusingly (to myself), i look at VRM stuff before i look at I/O :Dkwinz - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
I genuinely don't know why this new chipset exists. It bringa virtually nothing new. DMI 3.0 in a new chipset is a disgrace.Oxford Guy - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
"I genuinely don't know why this new chipset exists."Smoke and mirrors is fun?
Landfills are hungry?
mrvco - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Gotta keep those mobo mfgs busy I guess. Hopefully Intel’s Groundhog Day antics don’t distract them too much from the B550 boards I’m waiting patiently on.MadAd - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Not again, yet another tired selection of ATX clunkers, with a few mandatory ITX thrown in .When on earth are we/the industry going to move on from this prehistoric outdated form format!AdditionalPylons - Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - link
Very glad to see 2.5GbE finally becoming more common. Hopefully this convinces network switch manufacturers to get out some cheaper 2.5+ GbE switches soon.DarkAndHungryGod - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
The Intel Smart Sound support is duplicated in the first table, Intel Chipset Comparison, and there is one difference between both entries.duploxxx - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
conclusion: an amazing high count of motherboards for a wasted CPU generation….who ever believes that this is a platform to buy think twice. Knowing Intel I would not fall into the Multi generationCPU / chipset support..... i am sure the super turbo will look nice from benchmark perspective….
nonoverclock - Thursday, May 21, 2020 - link
I'm upgrading from an i7 4770 and want to get the latest, so for me, I'm quite interested in this gen.joshw351 - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link
I like how these mobo manufacturers think they can charge 1k for a motherboard when you can throw a 150-200$ waterblock from EK on a regular mobo.